Freshman Year

Preparing for Medical School at MSUCOM

Visit your college/university study
skills center. This should be your first stop when you are starting
college. Ask them to assist you with skill development in learning,
testing, reading and time management.

Develop an annual schedule that includes
time for academics, volunteering, extracurricular activities and
recreation. Walk or bicycle as often as you can. It’s an easy and
inexpensive way to fit exercise into your schedule. Maintaining a
healthy diet and getting enough sleep are essential to academic success
and staying well.

Begin learning about osteopathic
philosophy by searching the internet. Develop a list of skills and
abilities that you think would be useful to an osteopathic physician.

Read through the MSUCOM Admissions
website, and then make an appointment to speak with an admissions
advisor. Our job is to help you develop an application portfolio that
includes academic and nonacademic achievements. We offer phone and
office appointments. Just call our office at 517-353-7740 to set it
up.

Go back to your college bookstore and
look at the MCAT review books. You should begin preparing for the MCAT
on the day you begin classes. The best way to prepare for
standardized exams is to do lots and lots of practice questions.
Choose books that provide questions related to specific subjects and
buy those that correspond to the classes you’re taking this year. Use
them in conjunction with your regular course materials. They’ll give
you another study technique and show you the way in which the MCAT
covers the material.

Network with your classmates. Assume
that they are your future colleagues. Form study groups right away.
Quiz each other, discuss, debate and learn from one another. Not only
is this a more effective way of learning than solo studying, but
you’ll probably be less stressed and may even have some fun.

Choose a volunteer activity that
interests you and get involved. You may want to begin with something
that doesn’t demand a lot of your time until you get a sense of how to
balance your time. Suggested organizations: nursing homes, Habitat
for Humanity, outpatient clinics and area grade schools and middle
schools. In these types of settings you can build skills in active
listening, working in a team, teaching and mentoring.

At the end of your first
quarter/semester, review your schedule. Set up a log with 3 sections:
what I learned, volunteer activities, and extracurricular activities.
The learning section should be an overview of all of your activities,
not just an academic assessment. For both volunteer and
extracurricular activities, note the dates, type of activity and total
hours. Look over all of your notes and write a summary of no more than
3 sentences. This summary should be your guideline for setting up
your next quarter/semester schedule.

Sound like a lot for a college freshman to
take on? Look at it this way. If you don’t start now, you’ll be
pushing some really essential activities into your succeeding years in
school. Every year your classes will become more challenging and we’ll
push you to engage in more community service activities. You can
make the journey manageable by spreading all of these activities
throughout your college years.

The thing I remember most about Gone with the Wind is
how Scarlett O’Hara always said to herself “I’ll think about it
tomorrow” when she didn’t want to face her problems. It didn’t work for
her and it won’t work for you. If you didn’t do very well on the
ACT/SAT, go see someone about standardized testing. If you’re
struggling in a class, don’t mutter to yourself that you’ll just have
to work harder. Go get some help. If you’re feeling lonely, depressed,
isolated, talk to your friends, family, school advisors. The
osteopathic profession is about wellness and prevention. Learn to
think like a DO in the life choices you make.